I owe a lot to the day I was lucky enough to meet Mike Ratcliffe and Blair Whitehead! I first walked into a ProForce Education Day as a graduate looking for a break. Instead of placing me, ProForce hired me. That decision hard-wired the ProForce values into the way I build businesses: curiosity, commercial discipline, and service that creates advocates. After cutting my teeth internally, I was placed with a ProForce client, seeing the market from the candidate, consultant, and client sides. That rare 360° start taught me how talent, sales process, and customer experience knit together to create compounding value. ProForce didn’t just launch my career; they profited from placing me and equipped me with the playbook I still use to grow teams and win customers. I carried that playbook into Sydney’s fintech scene. At Valiant Finance, one of Australia’s most successful fintech businesses. I joined as the first salesperson and became Head of Sales as we scaled to 150+ employees. I embedded the ProGrad approach by hiring high-potential university students and new graduates, building a structured academy with coaching, shadowing, and clear KPIs. That pipeline powered a repeatable sales engine, lifted NPS, and created a cohort of alumni who credit the program for their careers. I then moved to the UK to found my own fintech focused on solving SMEs’ working-capital pain with technology-led, customer-obsessed solutions. From day one I replicated the graduate pipeline—partnering with universities, offering internships that convert to full-time roles, and codifying a ProGrad-style cadence that turns activity into outcomes. The result is a resilient team that ships fast, learns faster, and is trusted by partners and customers alike. This impact has been recognised across the industry. I was nominated as the and named an SME Champion for 2024 at the NACFB awards (my industry body). In 2025, I am nominated for even more - Industry Specialist of the Year - Invoice Finance Broker of the Year - Service Excellence Award - Short-term Finance Broker of the Year (Lucky I was trained by ProForce!!!) These honours reflect consistent delivery: helping SMEs access the right facility the first time, doing the hard underwriting work properly, and never compromising on client experience. Why Entrepreneur of the Year—and why overall ProGradian? My journey closes the loop on what ProForce exists to do. I entered as a graduate, became an internal hire, was successfully placed with a client, and then used that foundation to build market-leading teams and now a fintech of my own. I’ll keep paying it forward—expanding the graduate pipeline across Australia and the UK and championing the ProForce ethos everywhere I build. Thank you for your consideration.